The placement of fallen fragments of coconut helped William Jones decide on whether or not to go to graduate school. The Yoruba priest that Jones had invited into his Brooklyn apartment had examined the four coconut pieces

Just off the expressway that links the Italian stoned mansions in the Nigerian capital of Abuja’s pricey “Minister’s Hill” neighborhood to the settlements of corrugated tin roof shacks in the outskirts, is a nondescript path

For Dauda Musa, voting in Nigeria’s upcoming election is not a choice between candidates; it is one between life and possible death. The 31-year-old is from Chibok, the largely Christian town where almost 300 schoolgirls

Rose Wakulu is exhausted. Yet the 25-year-old sits upright on a wooden chair in an abandoned school classroom, breastfeeding her 28-day-old nephew Ibrahim. Boko Haram fighters killed his mother and twin

Fourteen years ago, at the age of 19, Ifeanyi Orazulike could no longer ignore his affections for men. "I had these funny feelings that I could not explain," he says. As the feelings evolved into a full-fledged attraction for the same sex

I got a job in New York City a few years ago. I was new to the American North; I still reeked of the South. Pillsbury biscuits, Georgian peaches and Jiffy cornbread with a dollop of Daisy. Chick-Fil-A, Bojangles’ and Piggly Wiggly

Grace Medaldi looked for love in a relationship with a man who threatened her when she got pregnant. “It will be unto you if you give birth to a child like you,” she says he told her. The “like you” was a reference to Grace’s skin

"Bull. One simple word. I'd put the other word behind it, but we don't talk that way." That's how Don Harwell responded when I asked if he felt compelled to support President Obama - a fellow African-American - in 2012